Press releases 2006

- Number of employed persons 54,000 higher than one year before
- Employment rate 68.8 per cent - Number of unemployed 32,000 lower
than one year ago - Unemployment rate 6.7 per cent, 175,000
unemployed - 35,000 new vacancies at labour exchange offices - In
January to November 2006, average number of employed 41,000 higher
than during the same period of 2005

- Number of employed persons nearly the same as one year before
- Employment rate 67.8 per cent - Unemployment rate 7.2 per cent,
187,000 unemployed - 35,000 new vacancies at labour exchange
offices - In January to October 2006, average number of employed
40,000 higher than during the same period of 2005

- Number of employed persons 38,000 higher than one year before
- Employment rate 68.7 per cent - Unemployment rate 6.8 per cent,
179,000 unemployed - 36,000 new vacancies at labour exchange
offices - In January to September 2006, average number of employed
44,000 higher than during the same period of 2005

The more social capital, or participation, trust and social
support, people have, the better they perceive their health. Those
who have taken part in social activities consider their health
better than non-participants do. Over 70 per cent of those Finns
that take much part in social activities or have great trust in
people perceived their health as good. The data appear from
Statistics Finland's publication Social Capital in Finland, where
the articles for the first time bring together statistical
information concerning social capital.

- Number of employed persons 69,000 higher than one year before
- Rate of employment 70.5 per cent - Unemployment rate 6.9 per
cent, 185,000 unemployed - 41,000 new vacancies at labour exchange
offices - In January to August 2006, average number of employed
44,000 higher than during the same period of 2005

In the Finnish government budget proposal for 2007 EUR 40
million more is earmarked for environmental protection expenditure
than in this year's budget. The increase is completely due to
environmental subsidies for agriculture, which will grow from EUR
265 million to EUR 311 million. Growth in environmental subsidies
for agriculture is attributable to transfers between budget
sub-items, and thus subsidies received by farmers will not increase
in practice. The data appear from the review Finland's Natural
Resources and the Environmentpublished by the Ministry of the
Environment and Statistics Finland.

During the past ten years, the majority of Finns have adopted
the new information and communications technology and at the same
time the use of new tools has become part of everyday life. In
1996, one in four households had a PC, but today the respective
proportion is two in three. At that time 7 per cent of households
had Internet access, but in 2005 as many as 58 per cent. The data
appear from Statistics Finland's report From Citizen to eCitizen.
Results from statistical surveys about Finns' use of ICT in
1996-2005.

- Number of employed persons 46,000 higher than one year before
- Rate of employment 71.8 per cent - Number of unemployed 18,000
lower than one year ago - Rate of unemployment 6.6 per cent,
179,000 unemployed - 25,000 new vacancies at labour exchange
offices - In January to July 2006, the average number of employed
persons 41,000 higher than in the corresponding period of the
previous year

Preliminary international results from the Luxembourg Wealth
Study will be presented on 21 August in the IARIW Conference
arranged in Joensuu. The objective of the study has been to
harmonise measurement of wealth in different countries and improve
international comparability. This has become possible thanks to the
new study database.

The world's leading researchers of national income and income
distribution will gather in Joensuu, Finland, for the 29th General
Conference of the International Association for Research in Income
and Wealth (IARIW) on 20-26 August 2006. The venue of the
Conference, which will be attended by nearly 300 experts in the
field from around 40 countries, will be the University of Joensuu.
Statistics Finland is responsible for the practical arrangements of
the Conference.

In the academic year 2004-2005, teaching and research staff at
universities spent nearly 2,000 working hours on tasks related to
their office or post. At polytechnics the respective number of
hours just exceeded 1,700. The number of working hours showed clear
variation by occupational group at universities but there was less
variation in this at polytechnics. At universities teaching staff
spent 40 per cent and at polytechnics 10 per cent of their working
hours on research. At universities teaching staff managed 15 per
cent and at polytechnics 12 per cent of their weekly job tasks by
e-mail. These data derive from an extensive survey of time use
among tertiary teaching and research staff which Statistics Finland
conducted in the academic year 2004-2005.

- Number of employed persons 38,000 higher than one year before
- Rate of employment 72.1 per cent - Number of unemployed 14,000
lower than one year ago - Rate of unemployment 8.1 per cent,
225,000 unemployed - 33,000 new vacancies at labour exchange
offices - In January to June 2006, the average number of employed
persons 40,000 higher than in the corresponding period of the
previous year

In February 2006, 62 per cent of households in Finland were
connected to the Internet. In four cases out of five the connection
was broadband. There were over 1.2 million broadband connections to
households. According to the data collected in 2005, more
households had broadband access in Finland than in the EU on the
average. The countries with the largest numbers of households with
broadband access were Iceland, the Netherlands and Denmark. By
contrast, Greece, Cyprus, the Czech Republic and Ireland were far
behind the EU target of having all households connected to the
Internet via broadband.

At the end of last year, the total number of automobiles in
Finland was 2.8 million, of which 2.4 million were passenger cars.
Vehicles equipped with catalytic converters and other low emission
vehicles made up 67 per cent of all automobiles and 72 per cent of
passenger cars. Although the stock of automobiles has been renewing
slowly, the number of vehicles equipped with catalytic converters
has increased manyfold since the beginning of the 1990s. The
average age of automobiles in Finland is about 10 years. These data
derive from Statistics Finland's publication Environment Statistics
2006released today.

- Number of employed persons 23,000 higher than one year ago -
Employment rate 68.7 per cent - Number of unemployed nearly the
same as one year ago - Rate of unemployment 10.1 per cent, 275,000
unemployed - 44,000 new vacancies at labour exchange offices -
40,000 more employed in the January to May period of 2006 than in
the corresponding period of the year before

The expectations from supervisory work have grown and
diversified, and at the same time organisational structures have
been radically changed - how are supervisors coping? Why have
problems related to coping and job satisfaction increased among
women, especially those in upper-level salaried positions, more
than among other employees? How do new ways of working flexible
hours and changes in information work show up in working life? Does
gender influence retirement plans? How does ageing influence
commitment to work? These are among the questions relating to
changes in working life and working conditions that are discussed
in Statistics Finland's new publication Kaikilla mausteilla.
Artikkeleita työolotutkimuksesta (With full trimmings. Articles
based on findings of the Quality of Work Life Survey).

- Number of employed persons 47,000 higher than one year before
- Rate of employment 67.5 per cent - Number of unemployed 35,000
lower than one year ago - Rate of unemployment 8.6 per cent,
225,000 unemployed - 36,000 new vacancies at labour exchange
offices - In January to April 2006, the average number of employed
persons 45,000 higher than in the corresponding period of the
previous year

- Number of employed persons 30,000 higher than one year ago -
Employment rate 67.6 per cent - Rate of unemployment 8,1 per cent,
211,000 unemployed - 50,000 new vacancies at labour exchange
offices - 44,000 more employed in the first quarter of 2006 than
one year earlier

The calculation methods of national accounts and the time series
data of annual national accounts for the years 1975-2004 have been
changed. In particular, changes have occurred in the calculation
methods of the volume development of gross domestic product and its
sub-components. At the same time, other revisions were made to time
series. The changes are mainly due to the harmonisation work of
national accounts carried out in the EU. Because of the changes the
national accounts data for 2005 released earlier on 1 March 2006
are not in all respects comparable with the data published now.

- Number of employed persons 47,000 higher than one year ago -
Employment rate 67.5 per cent - Number of unemployed 18,000 lower
than one year ago - Rate of unemployment 8,4 per cent, 219,000
unemployed - 52,000 new vacancies at labour exchange offices

According to Statistics Finland's preliminary data, the volume
of Finland's GDP grew by 2.1 per cent in 2005. Gross domestic
product, or the combined value added of the goods and services
produced, amounted to EUR 155 billion last year.

- Number of employed persons 54,000 higher than one year before
- Employment rate 66.6 per cent - Number of unemployed 23,000 lower
than one year ago - Rate of unemployment 8.7 per cent, 226,000
unemployed - 48,000 new vacancies at labour exchange offices

The election victory of Tarja Halonen, the candidate of the
Social Democratic Party, in the second round of the Presidential
election was based on her success in urban municipalities, where
she received 8.2 percentage points more votes than Sauli Niinistö,
the candidate of the National Coalition Party. Exceptions to this
were the urban municipalities of the constituency of Uusimaa, where
Niinistö gained almost equally much. Looking at the whole country,
Halonen lost to Niinistö by 0.6 percentage points in semi-urban
municipalities and by 8 percentage points in rural
municipalities.

- Number of employed persons 63,000 higher than one year before
- Employment rate 67.8 per cent - Number of unemployed almost
unchanged - Rate of unemployment 7.6 per cent, 198,000 unemployed -
26,000 new vacancies at labour exchange offices - In 2005, the
average number of employed persons 36,000 higher than in 2004 -
Unemployment rate 8.4 per cent in 2005

Tarja Halonen, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party,
received 11.9 percentage points more votes in the first round of
the Presidential election than the combined result was for the
Social Democratic Party and the Left Alliance in the Parliamentary
elections 2003. Sauli Niinistö, the candidate of the National
Coalition Party, won by 5.5 percentage points compared with the
Parliamentary elections, and Matti Vanhanen of the Centre Party of
Finland lost by 6.1 percentage points. Both Halonen and Niinistö
seem to have received new supporters from areas where the support
for their backing parties was low in the Parliamentary elections.
Correspondingly, Vanhanen lost votes in areas where the support for
the Centre Party was high in the Parliamentary elections.